Lethal Weapon 5… The Magic is Back Again, Again!

Go ahead and get all of your “too old for this shit” comments in now, I’ll wait.

Done? Good, because it looks like Detectives Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) may be wheezing back into action sometime soon. Member-only site TrackingB is reporting that Predator star Shane Black has written a spec script for a fifth film in the Lethal Weapon franchise. A franchise that many had thought ran its course with the superior second installment. And by “many,” I mean me.

Plot information is light with the exception of the following synopsis tease. “This time, homicidal Riggs is about to retire, but pulls Murtaugh out of retirement to solve one final case, before they both officially head off into the sunset.” Generic, yes. Expected, yes. Will I still see it? Yes, goddamnit, because after the fluff that was Lethal Weapon 3 and 4, Black won me back with the pitch perfect Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Black also directed that Robert Downey Jr./Val Kilmer masterpiece — yes I said masterpiece — which makes makes me want to suggest that series-helmer Richard Donner sit this fifth film out all together… let Black take the directing reins! At the very least we may get to see Gibson peeing on a corpse.

This report is obviously speculative and extremely premature, as the script has reportedly only recently been handed to uber-producer Joel Silver. Gibson and Glover are supposedly on board sight unseen, which is to be expected. But this news begs the question posed recently by resident angry bastard Robert Fure… is it really a good idea to return to a franchise so many years after the last film? I say you have to take each film on a case by case basis, but with Shane Black proving he’s back and writing better than ever, I’m willing to believe the magic may actually be back as well. Hell, after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black could write a sequel to The Monster Squad and I’d be first in line at the theater.

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